Everyone has House Rules. Even if you’re a die hard rules lawyer that loves the corebooks, there are still some rules you’re going to forget and fudge from time to time. Don’t worry, there is no shame in it. After all, those are pretty big books, no one would expect you to remember everything. This section will introduce you to our House Rules. Over time, we’ve toyed around with a great many House Rules, though to be honest, our current Chronicles do not use that many of them anymore. You’ll see in here both the good and the bad of House Rules. Things that over time we’ve developed and playtested. Some of them are good, others not so much. But they’re going to be here for you to take a look over. If you like something, feel free to use it, just don’t forget to give us credit! We hope that these rules work better for your Chronicles than they do for ours. Enjoy.

Alternate Health Level System

Note: This system is several years old and is actually one of those House Rules that we decided to scrap. It’s a little complicated and in the end makes combat a lot harder/longer. I put a lot of work into the system and so I decided to put it up on our site so you all can use it if you like. I hope you enjoy it.

Have you ever had a stupendously bad night of gaming? I'm talking about your 8^th Generation Gargoyle with Feral Claws out and Armor of Terra doing its thing, happily marching along stomping on the bad guys... until you come across HIM... a lowly mortal that you could stamp out without even dropping a brick. You swing with your claws, hit him with 800,000 successes and get ready to roll your 57 dice for damage... and fail every last one...

                Ok so I'm stretching the truth a little with the fantastic numbers but the rest of it happened. Unfortunetaly my friend did not have any Potence... why god why did he not have Potence? We may never know. My point in all of this is, Combat in the system as printed isn’t really all that realistic. If you get shot, you're going to take damage, if you're stabbed, you're going to take damage. I don't care if you're a mighty powerful Vampire, it's still going to hurt, even if it only does one point of damage. That would be why I have made this nifty new way of keeping track of Life and a way to take it away that fits in more realistically. Come on, you know that if you're itching for a fight, really wanting to chuck some dice, you're going to want to actually HURT THE DAMN ENEMY!!!

                Lets start with the basics. Health Points. Remember Hit Points in D&D? Welcome them back. Take your Character's Stamina + Fortitude x 2 + 8. Wound Penalties are a little more difficult... more math. Take your total Hit Points and divide by four. The first section has no penalty, the second has a -1, the third has a -2. The fourth is divided in half again, giving -3 and -5 in the obvious order.

                (Example: Tess, 11^th Generation Brujah Sheriff of Portland, has a Stamina of 3. Unfortunately for Tess, she has no Fortitude. She has a total of 14 Hit Points [3+0=3, 3x2=6, 6+8=14].)

                Sounds simple enough. Doesn’t it? Soak pools are fun. You have your Fortitude which soaks AUTOMATICLLY bashing and lethal damage. If your Fortitude doesn’t cut it then you still have your Stamina to help you soak. Bashing can be soaked all the way to zero and Lethal down to one. Aggravated stays the same though.

                Now to the whole reason we do this, because as it stands, weapons and fun combat abilities won't do nearly enough damage to take down anyone but the most squishy of thin bloods out there. anytime you see a number represented for Damage (ex. VtM pg. 215 Ranged Weapons Chart. Shotgun Damage 8) That number does its damage automatic. Where it says that something is Strength + X damage, you roll the Strength and add the successes to the number for total damage done. To complicate matters further, Potence and Fortitude play there part. Potence does its damage in automatically, adding to the damage number. all that is left is to roll straight up strength.
                (ex. a knife that does Strength + 1 Damage. Say we bring back our trusty Brujah Tess. Good ol' Tess has a Strength of 4.She hits The Dumb Drooling Shovelhead, who has 15 HP (Stamina 3, Fortitude 1). Tess’ player rolls her 4 Strength against a difficulty of 6. She gets a 2, 6, 9, and 3 for 2 Successes. add that to her 1 dot in Potence and the 1 automatic for the Knife and Tess scores 4 HP worth of Damage onto the DDS.DDS has a Fortitude of one so that 4 is shrunk down to 3. The DDS’s  player rolls Stamina scoring no successes. That knife took a good chunk out of him.)

                Complicated enough for ya?

                I’ve made it so all vampires can learn the three Physical Disciplines at will, as an extension of the Vampire's own supernatural nature.

                Potence adds Automatic Strength Successes.

                Fortitude ups your Hit Points, Soaks Bashing and Lethal Damage Automatically and Allows you to Soak Aggravated.

                Ready for one more?

                Celerity. If you spend blood to activate Celerity, add your Celerity to your Initiative.

                (ex. Tess has a Celerity of 1 and spends a BP on it at the beginning of combat. She has a Dex of 3 and a Wits of 3 for a Initiative mod of 6. Her player roll fantastically well (10) So Tess has an Initiative of 17 this turn.).

                I have an alternate Hit Point system set up for the Garou and their Fera cousins too… I just can’t remember it at the moment. I’ll edit this section when I can remember.

Sincerely yours:

Tom

                Byll and I created these rules to allow him to play a Mage in my Changeling: the Dreaming chronicle In Dreams of Liberty…His character, Ailfryd bani Merinita is a vassal of the Sidhe of House Liam. He traveled with his Sidhe allies during the Shattering and spent the last several centuries experiencing the comforts and horrors of their enchanted world. He went so far as to take a wife of House Liam. He now remains in the Autumn World, aiding his newfound companions hoping one day to return to his wife and House. His task in the Autumn World is unknown to him, though his fate is intertwined with the Fae of Portland.

Magic Within The Dreaming

• Indefinite duration requires quadruple successes instead of twice without Time Magic
• Time Magic is at +2 difficulty in the Near Dreaming; +3 difficulty in the Far Dreaming; +4 in the Deep Dreaming due to the odd time flows. Time sense merit reduces this penalty by one. Aide from a Sidhe negates it completely.
• Mortal magics may not command the Nobility. They can still be misled, deceived, and harmed however.
• Mortal magic may not be cast while the Firchlis is in effect (as the wave of change comes over the Dreaming). There is no way for it to affect anything within the change from beyond it, even to view it.
• Paradox takes the form of the Dreaming taking control of what messes with it., not from normal paradox sprits. Prime 5 is not a shield from paradox within the Dreaming.
• Casting a spell the same way more than three times within a lunar month causes paradox.
• Near Dreaming paradox may expel Magi from the Dreaming.
• Counterweaving can be used against Chimerical Spells (Spells cast by a Mortal Magi using the Chimerical Casting rules below.)
• Spheres cannot be cast on a level higher than the caster’s own Gremayre.

Requirements for Spells

Enchantment: Mind 2, Spirit 1

Chimerical Casting (Casting spells in the Autumn World that affect only the Chimerical World): Mind 2, Spirit 2 (plus other spheres applicable [Forces for chimerical lightning, ect])

Entering the Dreaming: Mind 3, Spirit 3 (Self); Mind 3, Spirit 4(Others); Mind 3, Spirit 3 (Open a Rath)

Affecting the form of:

            Etherial/Phantasmal Chimera: Mind 3, Spirit 3

            “Living” Chimera/Fae: Life 3, Mind 3, Spirit 3

            Inorganic “Dead” Chimera/Terrain: Matter 3, Mind 3, Spirit 3

            Inanimae: Life 3, Matter 3, Mind 3, Spirit 3

Creating Chimera:

            Mind 3, Spirit 5 or Mind 3, Spirit 4, Prime 4 (inanimate chimera) or Prime 5 (animate chimera)

            To create sentience, Mind 3, Spirit 5 (it’s own personality) or Mind 5 (creating a designed personality), Prime 4 (inanimate chimera) 5         (animate chimera) to make  permanent

Creating a stable path/point within the Dreaming: Entropy 5, Matter 3, Mind 3, Spirit 5

Countering Cantrips: Mind 2, Spirit 3, Prime 3. Difficulty 8 (-1 for every success on a Wits + Gremayre vs. Caster’s Permanent Glamour contested roll)

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